Following the death of Muhammad and under his successors known as Caliphs,
the Islamic religion spread throughout the Middle East, North Africa, and the
Iberian Peninsula. It was also during this time that the Islamic world
diverged into two main branches - the Sunna and Shi'a, a division originated in
a dispute regarding Muhammad's rightful successor. The Muslim Empire lasted in
different forms up until the beginning of the 20th century, when it ended with
the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. Over the centuries several imperial
centers arose, each viewing itself as a leader of the entire Muslim community.
During the years of expansion, in early medieval times, the derogatory
characterizations and descriptions of the Jews found in the Quran were
expanded and amplified in Islamic sacred texts, such as the Hadith, a collection of
traditions containing sayings of the Prophet Muhammad, as well as in
literature dealing with the life of the Prophet. At the same time however, the
traditions and policies stemming from the more tolerant attitudes were present as well.
The vast territories that came under Islamic rule brought with them
large numbers of non-Muslim groups and peoples. This diversity demanded a
practical policy that would regulate the activities of non-Muslims and would
ascribe a clear place to them. Members of monotheistic religions gained
the status of Dhimmi, non-Muslims under protection of Muslim law. On the one hand,
this status meant they had to exist under restrictions and limitations, but on the
other, it allowed them a certain level of religious and social autonomy. As part of
this status, Jews who were living in various areas throughout Islamic ruled
North Africa, Iberia, and the Middle East, were able to exist in relative peace,
especially compared to Jews in Christian Europe. However this relatively peaceful
existence depended on their acceptance of their inferior status in society.
Islam, again, regards Judaism and Christianity as divine religions. The
Jews and the Christians are what is called "People of the Book", that is they
have a divine book given to them by God. Therefore Jews and Christians, although
they are inferior to Muslims and although they should always be
subordinate to Muslims, under Islam, or under Islamic law and
Islamic culture, they enjoy tolerance. They are allowed to practice their
religion, they enjoy internal autonomy. However it should be
essential that their inferiority toward Islam, vis-à-vis Islam, should always be
emphasized. Now if we look at the attitude of Muslims or Islam toward
Jews and Christians we have to distinguish between texts and historical conduct.
Texts as I mentioned - Jews enjoyed tolerance, they are "People of the Book",
but there ara also a series of restrictions imposed upon the Jews. For instance
Jews were not allowed, ideally, to build synagogues, they were not allowed to
ride horses, they were supposed to wear special dress, or signs on their dress,
they had to pay a special tax called Jizya, which is a poll tax, and here the
Quran says that they had to do it in a humiliating way. So textually there
is a very clear discrimination against Jews. In reality we can see
changing periods, and it depends on the place and time, and historical circumstances.
We can say clearly that Jews enjoyed much greater tolerance
under Islam than under Christianity. until the modern period. More than that,
except for few cases, there waere no forced conversions of Jews, except for Iran and
in Morocco in the 11th century, and we hardly saw any physical attacks on Jews.
In this regard Islam as a religion, or the Muslim world, was much better toward Jews
than Christianity. In fact Jews historically regarded Islam or the
Muslim kingdoms as what they called "Malkhut Khesed", that is "righteous kingdom".
Jews emigrated from Christian countries to Islam. For instance if we look at the
15th century, when there was the mass expulsion of Jews from Spain, the Ottoman
Empire, the largest Muslim empire at the time, opened its gates toward
the Jews, welcomed the Jews, and tens of thousands of Jews moved to the Ottoman
Empire where they enjoyed great tolerance and autonomy,
and Jews were very grateful to the Ottomans. On the other hand as I said,
Jews are always subordinate, inferior to Muslims. Here we should say that the
Muslims were very anxious lest the non-Muslims do not understand their
place. That is whenever a minority tried to change its allotted place of
inferiority, here you can say Muslim tolerance disappeared,
and then we see signs of great intolerance. For instance in Spain,
when we had a Jew, Shmuel HaNagid, fulfilling a very high position
in the Muslim Kingdom, this created anger when he died and his
son succeeded him, there were anti-Jewish riots which ended in a mass pogrom.
That is Jews should know their place. In the 19th century for instance we see much
greater intolerance toward Christians, because Christians violated their allotted [place], or
tried to challenge their rightful place in the Muslim hierarchy.
The Jews in fact were not touched.